A COTS Acquisition Process: Definition and Application Experience

The use of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software products in state-of-the-practice software development has shown a substantial increase during the last few years. The benefits of COTS usage are clear: reduced development cost and shorter time-to-market. However, using COTS software in development activities also raises risks such as using software that does not sufficiently satisfy the requirements regarding, e.g., reliability, fault tolerance, functionality. Thus, a sound method that helps to decide which COTS software will be used in a specific development context has become mandatory. This paper introduces and describes a well-defined, systematic, and repeatable COTS acquisition process (CAP) and experience of using a tailored version of the process in a Siemens Business Unit. This includes the definition of the process, a brief description of the activities, and the description of the heuristics for effectiveness and efficiency integrated with the process. Moreover, we present data on cost, benefit, and quality aspects originating from an industrial case study in which the process was applied. From this data collected during the pilot project, conclusions are drawn on the process performance and whether it is worthwhile to apply the CAP.